Medgar Evers

Medgar Evers was a great leader of the civil rights movement in the 50’s and 60’s. From his humble beginnings in a small Mississippi town he grew to become one of the greatest leaders of the movement.

As a boy Evers was a serious and mature and he remained that way throughout his life. He was raised in a small town in Mississippi. He had strong religious values and a terrific work ethic as a child. While he was still in high school Evers left school to serve in the army. While fighting in the army the racist Nazis made a lasting impression on him. After he got out of the army he received his high school diploma and immediately enrolled in Alcorn A&M College. When in college Evers played football, ran track, edited the school paper and also sang in the choir. (Tuttle, pg.1)

Evers’s first job out of college was selling insurance for Magnolia Insurance which was one of the few black owned businesses. His boss was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and got Evers involved. In 1959 Evers moved to Jackson, Mississippi so that he could work full time for the NAACP. While in Jackson he was appointed Field Secretary for the Mississippi branch of the NAACP. He fought for fair employment and integration by organizing boycotts and other protests. He also tried to uphold the 1954 court decision of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka which outlawed segregation.

While he held this position he continued to be a hardworking, thoughtful and quiet man. He worked unceasingly despite threats of violence. He was outspoken on the issue of civil rights and his demands for the rights of all races were radical.

Sadly on June sixth 1963 Evers was shot in the back as he exited his Oldsmobile with an armful of Jim Crowe Must Go t-shirts. The .30-06 deer rifle with which he was shot was found in the bushes nearby with the owners fingerprints still fresh. On June 16, 1963 Evers’s was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. (Black, pg.1) Both Black and White leaders attended his funeral. (Medgar Evers)

The death of Medgar Evers had prompted President Kennedy to ask the congress for a more complete civil rights bill. President Lyndon Johnson signed the same bill into law the following year. (Medgar, pg.1)

The fingerprints on the deer rifle were matched to Byron De La Beckwith who was an active and vocal member of a white supremacist group. (Black, pg.1) Byron De La Beckwith went to trial for the murder of Medgar Evers. The two separate trials with all white juries both ended in deadlock decisions. Because the juries reached a legal stalemate Beckwith walked free.

Twenty years later information surfaced that suggested that the evidence in the two previous trials had been tampered with. The Assistant District Attorney, with the help of Evers’s widow, began compiling a new case. (Elliot Jr., pg.1)

The new trial that the two had compiled ended rather quickly. The jurors took little more than six hours to come to a decision. Judge L. Breland Hilburn then confirmed the verdict of guilty. After the trial ended Beckwith’s wife shrieked and sobbed loudly after Beckwith left the room. Years after the trial Byron De La Beckwith died at 80 while serving life in prison.

On the other hand, outside the courthouse a while later Myrlie Evers, the widow of Medgar Evers stop masking her emotion for the outcome of the trial, she loudly shouted a cheer and raised a clenched fist to the sky in triumph. As word of the verdict spread, cries of joy echoed throughout hallways. The jury for the final trial was made up of eight blacks and four whites. This could